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Outside spending hits the $200 million mark
By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 14, 2010 1:12 p.m.Spending by outside groups trying to influence the mid-term elections increased by a staggering $78 million in the last week, pushing the total spent by non-profits, labor unions and party committees to more than $200 million this cycle. That's an 80 percent increase from 2006, the last mid-term election.
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Contractor Super PAC Alaskans Standing Together backs Murkowski
By Ryan Sibley Oct 13, 2010 1:46 p.m.Alaskans Standing Together, a Super PAC that takes unlimited contributions from any source, raised $805,000 in contributions from nine federal contractors, all of them Alaska Native corporations, and is spending its money—$595,000 so far—to support the state's incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
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The DCCC picks up spending as Election Day nears
By Ryan Sibley Oct 7, 2010 5:18 p.m.In just three days, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent nearly $7 million in independent expenditures—doubling their spending in this arena to $14 million. On Monday, it was reported that the DCCC had spent only $7 million in IEs for the entire election cycle to support its party's attempt to maintain power in congress.
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Editor's Notebook: Following the muddled money
By Bill Allison Oct 7, 2010 3:03 p.m.Over the weekend, I came across a new group in our Follow the Unlimited Money tool called CSS Action Fund. I googled the group and didn't find anything about it; by Monday they'd set up a website. Curious, I asked Ryan Sibley, who's been all things post-Citizens United for us, to see what she could find out about the group.
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'Grassroots' group grows mainly in offices of D.C. law and PR firms
By Ryan Sibley Oct 7, 2010 11:54 a.m.A political committee called Citizens for Strength and Security Action Fund--usually abbreviated as CSS Action Fund--claims to be active across the country promoting the best solutions to America's problems, but the limited disclosures available about the group suggest that it's a creature of the beltway. The organization, which made its first noise in the 2010 mid-term elections by spending $640,000 supporting Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash in late September, shares a Washington, D.C. address with similar advocacy groups and lists political pros as its main players.*
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Crossroads connections visualized
By Lindsay Young Oct 6, 2010 12:10 p.m.Crossroads Media has a slew of conservative leaning political organizations as their clients spending millions in the run up to mid-term elections on ad buys. The company has processed more than $10.6 million worth of ad placements this election cycle (not all that money ends up with Crossroads Media--the bulk goes to the television, radio, cable and other outlets that run the advertisements it places).
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Outside groups spend $13 million in the last six days
By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 4, 2010 3:56 p.m.In the past six days--Wednesday through today--outside groups have spent more than $13 million to influence the mid-term congressional elections, including broadcast ads, robo-calls, get out the vote campaigns and mailings.
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NRCC spends big, flexes power
By Ryan Sibley Oct 4, 2010 11:23 a.m.The National Republican Congressional Committee reported spending more than $800,000 on one day, Friday Oct. 1, in opposition to 30 Democrats. The NRCC has spent almost $13.7 million in independent expenditures to oppose Democrats so far this election cycle, tops among all groups as of this writing.
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Beyond Super PACs: Political groups up electioneering spending as mid-terms approach
By Anupama Narayanswamy Sep 30, 2010 2:43 p.m.Outside organizations have so far reported spending more than $18 million to run issue ads mentioning candidates within 30 days of primaries and 60 days of the general election--a 31 percent increase over the last mid-term election cycle. Corporate trade associations, labor unions, environmental groups, proponents of traditional values and even a group that opposes big money in politics have run ads in the run up to November 2, reports from the Federal Election Commission show.
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Sunlight tools helps connect the dots between independent expenditures and ads
By Lindsay Young Sep 27, 2010 3:14 p.m.Just over a month away from the midterm elections political ads are mustering strength and each advertisement is only one small piece of a larger network of money, power and influence. The Sunlight Foundation has two new tools to help track this political influence: Follow the Unlimited Money, a user friendly way to track advertising and other kinds of electioneering, and Sunlight Campaign Ad Monitor that tracks the end result of some of the political spending powered by citizens reporting.
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Abortion issues dominate independent expenditures in California Senate race
By Lindsay Young Sep 24, 2010 1 p.m.In the Senate race between Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina of California, 87 percent of the independent expenditures relates to abortion issues. Among these two candidates, pro-life groups so far have spent $186,000, while pro-choice spending amounts to $41,000, according to a review of our independent expenditures database.
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Outside groups spending record amounts on mid-term elections
By Ryan Sibley Sep 23, 2010 12:06 p.m.Since January 2010, spending by outside organizations to influence congressional elections totals some $57 million--up more than $20 million from a comparable time period in 2006, the most recent non-presidential election cycle--according to reports collected by the Federal Election Commission.
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AP report highlights lack of disclosure in campaign finance world
By Ryan Sibley Sep 20, 2010 3:19 p.m.A report put out by the Asoociated Press today highlights the lack of disclosure of money spent to influence mid-term elections. The story highlights the successful fundraising efforts by American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, two Republican-leaning organizations created by top Bush administration advisors, and notes that the two groups raised $14.5 million combined in one 30-day period that ended on Sunday.
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SpeechNow now speaking
By Ryan Sibley Sep 15, 2010 4:30 p.m.The nonprofit group Speechnow.org has finally established itself as an independent expenture-only committee with the Federal Elections Commission. The group waited for two months after the FEC issued advisory opinions clearly stating that groups could organize to make independent expenditures and receive unlimited contributions -- a result Speechnow's win in a federal court case againt the FEC.
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